Portland, Ore., Police Refuse to Cooperate With Federal Questioning

Josey1

Portland, Ore., Police Refuse to Cooperate With Federal QuestioningWednesday, November 21, 2001PORTLAND, Ore. - Homeland defense may have a serious kink in its West Coast armor.Portland police refuse to cooperate with the U.S. Justice Department's request for help interviewing men who entered the U.S. since Jan. 1, 2000 from countries that have been linked to the Sept. 11 hijackers or were waystations for the Al Qaeda terror network.Portland's police department claims this part of the Justice Department's sweeping terrorism investigation would violate state law, making Portland the first city to refuse to cooperate with the anti-terrorism effort. The Justice Department had distributed a list of 5,000 men ages 18 to 33 it wanted to interview about the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Attorney General John Ashcroft announced earlier this month.Acting Police Chief Andrew Kirkland said Tuesday the U.S. Attorney's Office in Portland asked for city police cooperation last week. He said police denied the request, citing an Oregon law that says no one can be questioned by police unless they are suspected of being involved in a crime. "The law says, generally, we can interview people that we may suspect have committed a crime," Kirkland said. "But the law does not allow us to go out and arbitrarily interview people whose only offense is immigration or citizenship, and it doesn't give them authority to arbitrarily gather information on them." Portland FBI spokeswoman Beth Anne Steele said Tuesday she couldn't comment on the investigation. Justice Department officials were unavailable for comment Tuesday night. Charles Gorder, an assistant U.S. attorney in Portland, told The New York Times that the interviews would be completed, with or without help from local police. Arabs and Muslims have criticized the Justice Department's plan to interview the men on the list.Civil rights activists say the action constitutes racial profiling. The Justice Department acknowledges the men are likely to be Arab and Muslim, but says the list wasn't based on ethnic origin.Kirkland, who is black, said profiling is an issue that hits home for him, but that's not why the Justice Department's request was rejected. "I am sympathetic to that issue from a perspective of growing up African American," he said. "That doesn't factor into any decision to do this or not. We made that decision regarding racial profiling long before Sept. 11. That decision was made for us when the Legislature wrote the law." http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,39228,00.html

stanman

That's the Portland mentality, lot's of fascists immigrated from Kalifornia!The Portland police specialize in shooting only the innocent bystander or the mentally ill.

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My wife?.........Sure!My dog?..........Maybe!MY GUNS??........NEVER!!!